Ainsworth's Strange Situation

Question 1

Who dis Mary lady?

Answer 1

Ainsworth was interested in exploring differences in attachments of infants
Developed structured controlled observation known as ‘strange situation’ to investigate them

Question 2

What is the strange situation?

Answer 2

Is a technique that places infant in different situations in order to research quality of attachment to caregiver
Procedure is series of 8 episodes, mainly lasting 3 mins each, provided Ainsworth with means of looking at 5 characteristics

Question 3

What are the 5 characteristics Ainsworth looked at in the strange situation

Answer 3

Stranger anxiety
Separation anxiety
Proximity seeking behaviour
Exploration from secure base
Response to reunion

Question 4

What is an acronym to remembering these characteristics

Answer 4

Sometimes
All
Siblings
Are
Prepared
So
Before
Elishka
Fries
Sammy
Before
Rachel
Torments
Rallies

Ok thats rlly bad so I’m willing to compromise w this one <3

Question 5

What is proximity seeking

Answer 5

Infant w good attachment will stay close to caregiver

Question 6

What is exploration and secure base behaviour

Answer 6

Good attachment enables a child to feel confident to explore

Question 7

What is stranger anxiety

Answer 7

Sign of attachment is to show anxiety when a strange approaches
pretty self-explanatory if u ask me but ok

Question 8

What is separation anxiety

Answer 8

Sign of attachment is to protest at separation from caregiver
again, i aint talkin to idiyats here

Question 9

What is response to reunion

Answer 9

How child reacts to being reunited with caregiver

at this point these flashcards r useless

Question 10

How did they collect data in the strange situation?

Answer 10

Group of observers recorded what infant was doing every 15 secs
Observer notes down which of behaviours is displayed and scores its intensity on scale of 1-7

Question 11

What is secure attachment?

Answer 11

Most desirable attachment type
Associated with psychologically healthy outcomes
In strange situation, is shown by moderate stranger and separation anxiety and ease of comfort at reunion

Question 12

What is insecure-avoidant attachment?

Answer 12

Low anxiety but weak attachment
In strange situation is shown by low stranger and separation anxiety and little response to reunion - avoidance of caregiver
das not good ig

Question 13

What is insecure-resistant attachment?

Answer 13

Strong attachment and high anxiety
In strange situation, shown by high levels of stranger and separation anxiety and by resistance to be comforted at reunion

Question 14

Why is support for validity a +ve evaluation for Ainsworth’s strange situation?

Answer 14

Attachment type is strongly predictive for later development
Babies assessed as secure tend to have better outcomes, e.g.
-School success
-Success in romantic relationships and friendships in adulthood
ha…could never be us…um…anyways
Insecure-resistant is associated w the worst outcomes including
-Bullying in later childhood = Kokkinos 2007…das a fun name…maybe im the bully?!
-Adult mental health problems = Ward et al 2006

Question 15

How is good reliability a +ve evaluation for this girlie and her peculiar circumstance

Answer 15

Showed very food inter-rated reliability
Bick et al 2012 = looked at inter-rater reliability in team of trained situation observers and found agreement on attachment types for 94% of tested babies

Question 16

Why is ethnocentrism a -ve evaluation for all dis

Answer 16

Is the tendency to believe that one’s ethnic or cultural group is centrally important, and all others are measured in relation to one’s own

Question 17

Was the strange situation culture-bound?

Answer 17

Yes
Tis a -ve evalutation
yes…ANOTHER ONE, HIT IT DJ KHALED
Takahashi 1990 = noted test doesn’t rlly work in Japan cos Japanese milfs are so rarely separated from babies that we would expect there are very high levels of separation anxiety
And in reunion stage these mums rushed to baby and scooped them up, meaning child’s responses was hard to observe
how is that AINSWORTH’S FAULT?!

Question 18

What does the strange situation even measure?! - thats a -ve evaluation btw not just me being difficult <3

Answer 18

Is attachment the main influence on anxiety as Ainsworth assumed?
Kagan 1982 = suggested that temperament, the genetically influenced personality of child, is most important influence on behaviour in this situation
Temperament could be a confounding variable

Question 19

How is “there is at least one more attachment type” a -ve evaluation?

Answer 19

Main and Solomon 1986 - pointed out that minority of children display atypical attachments that do not fall within types A, B or C behaviour
Known as disorganised attachment
Disorganised kids (e.g. Avani Bains and Elishka Rassapour) display an odd mix of resistant and avoidant behaviours